Jimmy Deenihan
Question:76 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Transport his plans to address the concerns raised by the ESRI in the national development plan mid-term review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27701/03]
Written Answers. - National Development Plan.
The ESRI mid term evaluation of the national development plan endorses the priority which has been accorded to investment in transport infrastructure, confirms the positive contribution of this investment to economic growth and competitiveness and recommends an increase in investment in transport infrastructure, particularly in national roads. In addition, the ESRI identified a number of concerns in relation to the national roads and public transport investment programmes. In particular it emphasised the importance of strengthening cost estimation and control systems and procedures; recommended, in relation to national roads, reconsideration of the road standard mandated in the national development plan for the five major inter-urban routes; recommended the consideration of congestion charging in urban areas; emphasised that decisions on user toll based road PPPs should be based on value for money considerations; recommended that mainline rail projects already committed should proceed but others should await deliberations on the strategic rail review and that rail safety and mainline track renewal projects should not be undertaken without proper economic cost benefit analysis; emphasised the need to improve the use of suburban rail capital stock through frequency improvements and appropriate physical planning guidelines in urban areas to optimise usage of infrastructure and recommended that in planning future public transport investments in Dublin, expensive rail projects which take a long time to deliver need to be rigorously examined.
The conclusions and recommendations of the report in relation to the foregoing issues will be carefully considered by my Department and its agencies. It will be particularly important in the ongoing implementation of the transport infrastructure investment programmes to continue to give a high priority to strengthening cost estimation and control, securing greater certainty in outturn cost and ensuring best value for money.
In relation to the recommendation on the appropriate road type on the major inter-urban routes, it should be noted that a range of issues such as overall route standard considerations, current and projected traffic volumes, safety aspects and later upgrade costs have to be taken into account.